Headrest Set for Office Chair

ABSTRACT

A headrest set for office chairs includes a bracket whose lower end is fastened on a rear side of a seat back while a top end of the bracket connects with and supports a backside plate of the headrest, a headrest, and an elastic buffering member arranged between the backside plate of the headrest and the top end of the bracket. By deformation of an elastic member, the headrest set has buffering effects. When the user&#39;s head suddenly leans against a headrest surface or the user changes the posture from sitting to reclining, the impact caused by the reaction force of the headrest surface is buffered and the headrest surface is automatically adjusted so as to enhance comfort of the headrest.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a headrest set for office chairs, especially to a headrest set having an elastic buffering member between a headrest and a bracket so as to make the headrest have buffering effect and absorb impact energy caused by reaction force of the headrest.

Refer to FIG. 1, a common headrest set 10 assembled with an office chair includes a headrest 11 and a bracket 12. The upper end of the bracket 12 connects with a rear side or bottom side of the headrest 11 while the lower end of the bracket 12 is fastened on a rear side 14 of a seat back 13. Thus the headrest set 10 is arranged on a certain position on the seat back 13 for users' head to lean against a headrest surface 111. Most of design of the headrest 11 is related to the ergonomics appearance or height adjustment. However, the buffering effect of the headrest 11 has great effect on its comfort. When the user sits on the office chair, his head suddenly leans against on the headrest 11 so that there is an impact force generated toward the headrest 11. Now the reaction force from the headrest 11 may cause damage or unconfortableness of the user's head. Although the headrest 11 is disposed with a soft pad on the outer layer, the buffering effect is limited. Moreover, when the user's head leans against the user's head, the user's head gives an action force to the headrest 11 while the headrest 11 correspondingly give a reaction force to the user's head and presses user's head. The magnitude of action force and reaction force depends on the user. For example, the user's gender makes differences. The curves from the user's head to the shoulder also have effects.

Furthermore, when the user sits on the chair, the reaction force from the headrest 11 is not too strong. Yet when the user changes from sitting to reclining (the seat back 13 is adjusted backward), the reaction force increases along with the increasing of the reclining angle. After the conventional headrest set 10 being assembled with the office chair, the angle between the headrest 11 and the seat back 13 is fixed and is unable to be adjusted according to different figures of the users. It also can't be changed when the user changes the posture from sitting to reclining. Thus the requirement of comfort of the headrest can't be satisfied. And the design of conventional headrest set 10 is unable to overcome the uncomfortableness caused by reaction force of the headrest 11.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a headrest set formed by a bracket and a headrest. A lower end of the bracket is fastened on a rear side of a seat back, near the upper edge thereof. The bracket extends and the top end of the bracket facing the front end of the seat back connects with and supports a backside plate of the headrest so that a headrest surface of the headrest locates above the seat back for the user's head to lean against. An elastic buffering member is disposed between the backside plate of the headrest and the top end of the bracket 30. The elastic buffering member is formed by at least one elastic member. By deformation of the elastic member, the impact of the reaction force of the headrest surface is buffered. When the user's head suddenly leans against a headrest surface or the user changes the posture from sitting to reclining, the impact caused by the reaction force of the headrest surface is buffered and the headrest surface is automatically adjusted so as to increase the buffering effect of the headrest and enhance comfort of the headrest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional headrest set assembled with an office chair;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment assembled with an office chair according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an explosive view of an embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the embodiment in FIG. 3;

FIG. 4A is a partial enlarged view of the embodiment in FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the headrest I the embodiment in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing showing an embodiment in use while an user is seated;

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing showing an embodiment in use while an user is reclined.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Refer to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 & FIG. 4, a headrest set for office chairs 2 according to the present invention is assembled on a seat back 3 for users' heads to lean against and is composed of a headrest 20, a bracket 30 and an elastic buffering member 40. The headrest 20 is designed into a housing formed by a headrest surface 21 and a backside plate 22. A room 23 is arranged on about central area of an inner surface of the backside plate 22. A horizontal slot base 24 and an insertion hole 26 are arranged on the room3. A corresponding cover 25 is fastened on outside surface of the room 23 while a front part 411 of a connecting member 41 is mounted inside the horizontal slot base 24 movably. A rear part 412 of the connecting member 41 inserts through the insertion hole 26 so that the headrest 20 can rotate vertically within a certain range of angle. While the rear part 412 of the connecting member 41 is fixed, the headrest 20 can rotate vertically within a certain range of angle, as an arrow B points shown in FIG. 4. Thus the headrest 20 has an ergonomic design.

The bracket 30 is a vertical tube or rod without restriction on the shape. A top end 31 of the bracket 30 connects with and supports the headrest 20. A hollow part 311 is arranged on the top end 31 and the shape of the cross-section of the hollow part 311 corresponds to that of a part of the rear part 412 of the connecting member 41. For example, the cross section of the hollow part 311 is triangular. Thus the rear part 412 of the connecting member 41 is sleeved into the hollow part 311 movably. A lower end 32 of the bracket 30 is fastened on a rear side 14 of a seat back 13, near the upper edge thereof. In this embodiment, a fastening block 60 is fastened on the rear side 14 firstly. A plurality of fastening holes 62 is arranged on a fastening surface 61 of the fastening block 60 so that fastening members 63 such as fastening screws can insert through the fastening holes 62 for fastening the fastening block 60 on the rear side 14. Moreover, the lower end 32 of the bracket 30 can be assembled with an exterior body 64 of the fastening block 60. By a fixing screw 322 inserting through a locating hole 321 on the bottom of the lower end 32 for fastening the lower end 32 with the fastening block 60, the bracket 30 is fastened and fixed on the rear side 14 by the fastening block 60.

The elastic buffering member 40 formed by at least one elastic member is disposed between the headrest 20 and the top end 31 of the bracket 30. The elastic member can be springs or clips that deforms for absorbing (impact) energy caused by reaction force from the headrest 20 while the user's head leaning. In this embodiment, the elastic buffering member 40 consists of a connecting member 41 and an elastic member 42. The elastic member 42 is a coil compression spring inserted into the hollow part 311 of the bracket 30 while a rear end of the elastic member 42 is fixed so as to form a stopping end. As to the connecting member 41, the front part 411 thereof is mounted inside the horizontal slot base 24 of the headrest 20 movably while the rear part 412 thereof inserts through the insertion hole 26 and movably into the hollow part 311 of the bracket 30 so that the rear part 412 of the connecting member 41 leans against a head part 422 of the elastic member 42 and won't fall off from the hollow part 311, as shown in FIG. 4. Thus the rear part 412 of the connecting member 41 can slide forward and backward stably inside the hollow part 311. When the headrest 20 is applied with the reaction force due to the user's head, the headrest 20 presses the connecting member 41 to move backward and synchronously presses the head part 422 of the elastic member 42 to move backward so that the elastic member 42 is compressed elastically so as to achieve buffering effect, as the arrow A points shown in FIG. 4.

When the reaction force from the headrest 20 disappears, the elastic member 42 turns back and the headrest 20 is also back to original place. Thus no matter the user's head suddenly leans against the headrest 20 or the user adjusts the seat back 13 from straight status to reclined status so that the reaction force increases, a displacement is generated between the headrest 20 and the bracket 30 by the connecting member 41 compressed the elastic member 42 in the elastic buffering member 40 so as to have buffering effect and the impact energy from user's head to the headrest 20 is absorbed. Moreover, according to amplitude of the reaction force of the headrest 20, the position of the headrest 20 is automatically adjusted. For example, when the reaction force is larger, the position of the headrest 20 is getting lower due to higher compression. Thus the comfort of the headrest 20 is improved no matter the user is seated or reclined.

Refer to FIG. 4 & FIG. 4A, the bracket 30 in this embodiment is designed into two-stage adjustable structure—having an upper section 33 and a lower section 34. The upper section 33 is sleeved into the lower section 34. A horizontal long hole 331 is arranged on the bottom of the upper section 33 while a compression spring 71 and two balls 72 on two ends of the compression spring 71 are mounted inside the horizontal long hole 331. A hole 341 is arranged on one side of the lower section 34, corresponding to the compression/extension direction of the spring 71 while a plurality of vertically-arranged arced locking slots 343 is arranged on the other inner side 342. A cover 35 corresponding to the hole 341 is disposed with an insertion hole 351 so that the cover 35 is fastened on the hole 341 of the lower section 34 by a screw 344. By elasticity of the spring 71, the ball 72 is locked into one of the arced locking slots 343 so as to form an elastic ball lock 70. In use, by the elastic ball lock 70, the upper section 33 of the bracket 30 slides upward and downward inside the lower section 34 so as to adjust the height and located into one of the arced locking slots 343, as the arrow C points in FIG. 4. Therefore, the height of the headrest 20 is adjusted.

Refer to FIG. 5, the headrest surface 21 of the headrest 20 is further disposed with a plurality of suspending pieces 27. Both the headrest surface 21 and the suspending pieces 27 are integrated parts made by plastic injection. By elasticity of the suspending pieces 27, the buffering effect of the headrest 20 is further enhanced. 

1. A headrest set for office chairs comprising a bracket, a headrest and an elastic buffering member; wherein the bracket whose lower end is fastened on a rear side of a seat back while a top end of the bracket connects with and supports a backside plate of the headrest, the headrest connects with the top end of the bracket so that a headrest surface is above top of the seta back for users' heads to lean against; the elastic buffering member disposed between the headrest and the top end of the bracket and having at least one elastic member so that the impact from the headrest surface is buffered by deformation of the elastic member; wherein while the user's head leaning against the headrest, impact of the headrest is buffered by the elastic member of the elastic buffering member and by pressing of the user's head, the headrest move backwards corresponding to the bracket so as to adjust a relative position of the headrest toward the seat back.
 2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the headrest further comprising a backside plate while a slot base and an insertion hole are arranged on a center area of the backside plate so that a front part of a connecting member is mounted inside the horizontal slot base movably and a rear part of the connecting member inserts through the insertion hole.
 3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a hollow part is arranged on the top end of the bracket and shape of the cross-section of the hollow part corresponds to the shape of the cross-section of a part of a rear part of the connecting member so that the rear part of the connecting member is sleeved into the hollow part of the bracket movably.
 4. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the elastic buffering member comprising a connecting member and an elastic member that is a coil compression spring inserted into the hollow part on the top end of the bracket while a rear end of the elastic member is fixed so as to form a stopping end; a front part of the connecting member is mounted inside the headrest movably while a rear part of the connecting member extends backward and movably inserts into the hollow part on the top end of the bracket so that the rear part of the connecting member leans against a head part of the elastic member; when the headrest is applied with reaction force due to user's head against the headrest, the headrest presses the connecting member to move backward and synchronously presses the head part of the elastic member to move backward so that the elastic member is compressed elastically for reducing height of the headrest.
 5. The device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the elastic buffering member comprising a connecting member and an elastic member that is a coil compression spring inserted into the hollow part on the top end of the bracket while a rear end of the elastic member is fixed so as to form a stopping end; a front part of the connecting member is mounted inside the headrest movably while the rear part of the connecting member extends backward and movably inserts into the hollow part on the top end of the bracket so that the rear part of the connecting member leans against a head part of the elastic member; when the headrest is applied with reaction force due to user's head against the headrest, the headrest presses the connecting member to move backward and synchronously presses the head part of the elastic member to move backward so that the elastic member is compressed elastically for reducing height of the headrest.
 6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bracket further comprising an upper section and a lower section while the upper section is sleeved into the lower section; an elastic ball lock is disposed on a bottom of the upper section and a plurality of vertically arranged locking slots corresponding to the elastic ball lock is arranged on an inner surface of the lower section so that when the upper section slides vertically inside the lower section, the upper section stops at a certain height inside the lower section by the elastic ball lock locked into one of the locking slots.
 7. The device as claimed in claim I, wherein the headrest surface of the headrest is disposed with a plurality of suspending pieces. 